Manchin has said he will not decide whether he will run for reelection until the end of the year. He has also left the door open to a presidential bid.
“I am laser focused on doing the job West Virginians elected me to do — lowering healthcare costs, protecting Social Security and Medicare, shoring up American energy security and getting our fiscal house in order,” Manchin said in a statement released Thursday. “But make no mistake, I will win any race I enter.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee played an active role in recruiting Justice. With a 64 percent approval rating, Justice is the fifth-most popular governor in the country, according to a survey conducted last year by Morning Consult.
Before taking on Manchin, Justice must face GOP Rep. Alex Mooney in the Republican primary. The conservative group Club for Growth has vowed to spend at least $10 million on the race, and has already reported spending from its super PAC this week.
The congressman is launching an TV ad on Thursday that bashes Justice as a “liberal.” Justice was previously registered as a Democrat and switched parties in 2017.
Both candidates would benefit greatly from Trump’s endorsement and are angling for that support. Mooney flew down to Florida for a congressional fundraiser on Friday — and also chatted up Trump at the event. Mooney’s campaign wants Trump to at least stay neutral if he won’t endorse the conservative congressman, according to a person briefed on the event.
POLITICO previously reported that Justice planned to launch his campaign on Thursday.
Burgess Everett, Ally Mutnick and Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
While the disease has caused impairments, the Virginia Democrat emphasized that Parkinson’s isn’t a “death sentence” and that she’s working with a doctor to address the symptoms.
“I want to use that platform to be a voice for those struggling with Parkinson’s to help bring better resources to the search for a cure,” she said Tuesday, announcing the diagnosis on National Parkinson’s Day. Some 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, but the actual number is expected to be much higher.
In recent weeks, Wexton has focused on her duties in Congress while also traveling around her district, hosting events with constituents and visiting local businesses and schools. She plans to continue such outings as she works with the doctor on a suitable treatment plan.
“I hope to keep serving you for many years to come,” she said.
Wexton previously worked as a domestic violence prosecutor and substitute judge before becoming a state senator, a position she held for five years. She won the post in Virginia’s 10th congressional district in 2018, flipping her district blue.
That year, she gained national attention for leading a symbolic vote on a resolution that condemned future government shutdowns, targeting Republicans ahead of another shutdown battle. She also applauded the removal of the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee inside the U.S. Capitol in 2020, calling it a “historic and long-overdue moment.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Passed in 2021, the law requires that female sports teams at the state’s public middle schools, high schools and colleges be based on “biological sex.” Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 12-year-old transgender girl who was looking to try out for her school’s girls cross-country team, challenged the law. Pepper-Jackson has played sports on teams that match her gender identity during several sports seasons.
After the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the state from enforcing the law, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed an emergency request with the high court seeking to put it back into effect.
In a two-page opinion, Alito said the dispute raises “an important issue that this Court is likely to be required to address in the near future.” While acknowledging arguments that West Virginia moved too slowly in the case, he said state officials had the better legal position, at least at this juncture. Thomas joined Alito’s opinion.
Pepper-Jackson’s lawsuit argues that the law violates both Title IX protections against sex discrimination and equal protection rights found in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal lawyers had urged the high court to reject the state’s request, arguing that West Virginia could not prove that there was an emergency that necessitated the court’s intervention.
“We are grateful that the Supreme Court today acknowledged that there was no emergency and that Becky should be allowed to continue to participate with her teammates on her middle school track team, which she has been doing without incident for three going on four seasons,” the groups said in a statement.
This is the second time the court’s conservative majority has declined to weigh in on a high-profile case related to transgender students. In 2021, the court decided not to take up a case on transgender students’ rights to use bathrooms that match their gender identity.
At least 19 states have laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. West Virginia’s request had the support of more than 20 states, which urged the high court to vacate the injunction.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes as the Biden administration is pushing back on those laws by advancing a Title IX rule on athletics participation that is widely expected to safeguard transgender students’ right to play on sports teams.
Morrisey expressed disappointment that the justices declined to step in, but said he expects a different result if and when the appeal in the case reaches the high court for more regular review.
“This is a procedural setback, but we remain confident that when this case is ultimately determined on the merits, we will prevail,” Morrisey said, noting that the 4th Circuit has yet to issue a final ruling on the validity of the law. “We maintain our stance that this is a common sense law — we have a very strong case. It’s just basic fairness and common sense to not have biological males play in women’s sports.”
Alito’s opinion also lamented the fact neither the appeals court nor the Supreme Court’s majority explained their decisions to reject the state’s emergency request.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Under the law, which will take effect in January 2024, a patient can be prescribed puberty blockers and hormone therapy after receiving parental consent and a diagnosis of severe gender dysphoria from two doctors, including a mental health provider.
Gender dysphoria is defined by medical professionals as severe psychological distress experienced by those whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth.
Lawmakers in West Virginia and other states moving to enact bans on transgender health care for youth and young adults often characterize gender-affirming treatments as medically unproven, potentially dangerous in the long term and a symptom of “woke” culture.
Every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association, supports gender-affirming care for youths.
A 2017 study by UCLA Law’s The Williams Institute estimated West Virginia had the highest per capita rate of transgender youth in the country.
The rate of suicide ideation, or having suicidal thoughts or ideas, for transgender youth in West Virginia is three times higher than the rate for all youth in the state, according to West Virginia Youth Risk Behavior Survey data.
At least 11 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and nearly two dozen states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban care.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Leading the push for a Virginia-based FBI are the state’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. Warner, in discussing the “ferocious debate,” referred to Hoyer in the practiced and professional tones of a heavyweight rival in a boxing match with thousands of jobs on the line.
“I’ve got great respect for Mr. Hoyer, and I’m anxious that the process proceed,” Warner said. “We’ve got criteria, we made our last and best final offers last week and I feel good about where Virginia stands.”
The FBI headquarters face-off has stoked fierce divisions among two congressional delegations that interact more than nearly every other pair of states, excepting the Dakotas or Carolinas. Yet it’s not the only fresh fault line between Virginia and Maryland, whose Democratic senators split over disapproving a progressive D.C. crime law, with the former duo backing the rollback and the latter backing the D.C. Council.
Then, of course, there are the standard tension points: bragging rights over the Chesapeake’s famous blue crab and football (the Virginia Cavaliers are set to take on the Maryland Terrapins this fall).
The FBI battle has dramatically intensified recently, ever since Marylanders learned that Virginia would have at least one leg up in the process. That’s because the agency leading the headquarters hunt, the General Services Administration, plans to weigh the two sites’ proximity to the FBI academy in Quantico, Va., as a larger part of its overall decision.
“This goes beyond a rivalry,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “This is about the mission of the FBI and getting the taxpayers the best deal.” But Van Hollen made one point clear: “The oyster wars, that was part of our longstanding rivalry. Just for the record, Maryland won the oyster wars.”
Members of the two Senate delegations, all of them Democrats, insist though that they agree on more than they disagree, highlighting their work together on WMATA funding, H-2B visas and their support for federal employees.
“Generally, we’re together more than not,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). “I have the utmost respect for my two colleagues from Virginia.”
Still, the competition is stiff for the FBI building. Hoyer, the former House majority leader, is perhaps the most fervent FBI-to-Maryland booster of all. He recently drove to Virginia’s proposed headquarters site in Springfield, snapping cell phone photos to help make his case.
More than a decade after then-FBI director Robert Mueller first walked into his office to discuss the subject, Hoyer estimated in an interview that he spends about one-fifth of his time per week on the new headquarters. He’s worked with Wes Moore, Maryland’s rising-star governor, to deploy every possible resource on their state’s behalf, including personal pleas to Biden and the new White House chief of staff, Marylander Jeff Zients.
The Free State’s pitch is bolstered by the NAACP as well as civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton, centered on a push for equity that Black community advocates say is critical for Prince George’s County — and for Biden’s own reelection.
And that pressure campaign has infuriated many Virginians, some of whom have quietly gone to the White House themselves with an entreaty to ignore it.
Things could soon get even nastier. Hoyer did not rule out flexing some of his power over the federal purse this fall if Maryland’s bid is rejected. He and Van Hollen are both the top Democrats on a spending panel that oversees funding for the very agency in charge of the headquarters search, the GSA.
“I don’t think we’d go quietly into that dark night,” Hoyer said when asked if he would try to influence the selection through his Appropriations Committee perch if Virginia wins. “Van Hollen and I will still be where we’ll be.”
Virginians, though, insist they wouldn’t let the FBI building clash derail another spending bill. The headquarters was one of the final hangups delaying passage of December’s government funding deal, with Hoyer in particular refusing to yield until he secured new language that helped keep Maryland’s bid alive.
Maryland’s stance shocked the Virginians, including Warner, who ultimately went to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to help end the standoff. Schumer eventually reached a deal with the two delegations.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who represents the Springfield site, responded coolly to Hoyer’s suggestion that another spending bill could hang in the balance: “Threats to retaliate against a professional decision made on the merits, I think, are unworthy of any senior member of Congress, and I hope will not work.”
Connolly himself has plenty of experience with Beltway-state squabbling that, as he put it, “goes back to King Charles.” As a top official in Fairfax County, he once got embroiled in a lawsuit between the two states over the location of a drinking water pipe that went all the way to the Supreme Court — which ultimately ruled for the Old Dominion.
He added that he’s disappointed by the “element of desperation” in Maryland’s jockeying during the last few months, particularly its case for diversity and equity — he pointed to the more than 100 languages spoken in Springfield.
Kaine, meanwhile, insisted that the fight for the FBI building is not an anomaly for the two states and described it as a “friendly competition.”
“I don’t view this as different than other instances where Maryland and Virginia have squared off,” Kaine said. “Virginia would love to have NIH. Virginia would love to have some of the intel agencies, the NSA in Maryland. I’m sure Maryland would love to have some of the things that are in Virginia.”
This time, however, the Hill is paying even more attention to the two states because they’re also home to two national political players in their respective parties: Moore and Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s Republican governor.
Moore and Youngkin have been planning to sit down together after they both won in November, according to a person familiar with the discussions. In the meantime, Moore challenged Youngkin to a one-on-one pickup basketball game to determine the FBI’s future hub. (When Youngkin didn’t respond, Moore accurately picked UVA to lose in the first upset of March Madness in his bracket. The Terps won the same day.)
While Virginia Democrats acknowledge it’s a bit awkward to root for handing Youngkin a big political win in the FBI building as he eyes a potential 2024 bid, they say a bipartisan approach is also critical. Kaine, Warner and Youngkin wrote a joint Washington Post op-ed on Thursday that made the case again for their state. And if Maryland makes any maneuvers in year-end spending bills, for instance, Youngkin could call on House GOP leaders to stop them.
Hoyer predicted Youngkin wouldn’t hesitate to use a potential FBI win on the campaign trail, whether he’s seeking his party’s presidential nod or a different prize. “I’m sure he would,” he said.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are already looking ahead to what could be the next fight. The White House announced last week that Biden’s new disease-fighting agency, ARPA-H, will house its headquarters in the D.C. metro area.
Its location will be chosen by GSA.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
